This is notification regarding a potential upcoming official test program for Voip 911 Services in Boston, Massachusetts (including all of its' member subcommunities: Dorchester, South Boston, East Boston, Back Bay, Allston-Brighton, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roxbury, Readville, West Roxbury, South End).

The test will be conducted by the City of Boston 911 Operations Center, the actual persons you would talk to in a real emergency should you live or be within Boston when you place a 911 call. We are seeking to clarify how well Voip companies are integrating their systems with the identification system that gives operators your location, as well as if the calls are routed properly.

If you are interested, 21 years of age or older, and work or reside within the City of Boston (we look to test both business and residential), please respond to this inquiry to boston.911@hotmail.com. We will provide more official contact information individually.

If the test goes forward, you will be emailed with information in regards to when testing will commence. One day prior to your actual test, you will be contacted by email if not specified otherwise by you to inform you of your test time. No general notification will be made, and the times will be random. This is to help insure that we are conducting an impartial test *by the users* of Vonage.

Thank you for your interest in this important program to help us better serve you in times of emergent need.

Last edited by boston911 on Sun Sep 10, 2006 8:45 am; edited 2 times in total

Hmm, now that's a very odd request to ask via an unofficial Vonage forum. Seems that a govt agency has better means to contact people then to come to a message board and solicite personal information. Maybe provide a place at www.cityofboston.gov for people to enroll in the testing. I'd be wary of just sending information to someone on a message board.

Hmm, now that's a very odd request to ask via an unofficial Vonage forum. Seems that a govt agency has better means to contact people then to come to a message board and solicite personal information. Maybe provide a place at www.cityofboston.gov for people to enroll in the testing. I'd be wary of just sending information to someone on a message board.

And a @Hotmail.com address to boot! My scam sensors just fired off! Could someone be setting up a phone attack on Boston 911? I think I'd put on some rudder and steer around this one Davy.

I know that Vonage has a team that is dedicated simply to 911 systems. I am sure they have a much better handle on the situation then your "official test". Especially when the Boston website has this to say about 911 "Never make a test call to 911. These test calls occupy the dispatcher and tie up phone lines and equipment. The telephone company has designed 911 to be highly reliable, so it will work when you need it. Please keep the lines free for people who have EMERGENCIES."

I'm trying to set up a legitimate test. Reply now to bogosian@bostonems.org, my work email. I am an EMT and 911 calltaker/dispatcher for the City of Boston EMS, authorized by the Commander of Dispatch Operations to try to gather contacts for a POSSIBLE upcoming test pending approval. You *can* test 911 if we know it is coming.

How else am I to get people to be involved in this if not through posting in places like this? It's not like I can go to Vonage and ask for client information... even if they *did* give me something, chances are it would be people whose accounts they would set up so that the test would work, even if it doesn't work for other people.

When you call 911, we get an ANI (Automatic Number Identifier) and an ALI (Automatic Location Identifier). Traditional 911 works by routing the phone number to a database run by the phone company that shows the *billing address* for that number. Voip has, therefore, a major problem in that *it does not come back through that system*. Therefore we are reliant upon Voip companies to provide that information TO that system in order for us to be able to find the caller if they cannot provide that information.

We are testing this because more and more people are going to be using Voip and we *need* to be aware if that system is not working NOW so that the state telecommunications board can find a way to work with the companies to *make* it work if it is not. Please reply to my work email above if you are interested. Thank you.

P.S. "Emergent" in our business means "currently developing or in need of immediate care. It's a triage term similar to those used in hospitals.

"How else am I to get people to be involved in this if not through posting in places like this? It's not like I can go to Vonage and ask for client information... even if they *did* give me something, chances are it would be people whose accounts they would set up so that the test would work, even if it doesn't work for other people."

Since you are a govt agency, why not try TV and radio spots? You could also try communicating with your local DMV and see if they would be open to letting you use the database with people's driver's license address for an official govt mailing. There's many ways to so this, and more effective ones to boot.

The work involved in doing a DMV type mailing is prohibitive, and even if, there's no reason to send out a mass mailing when we are looking for a specific target audience. Hence, you guys. This is the most efficient way *I* could think of to reach users, and interested users who care about Voip and whether or not it works with 911. Most people throw mailings away anyway. It is imperative that we find out if Voip 911 is working the way it should, and if not, fix it. Would you want your child calling 911 and not be able to be found? That's what it comes down to.

This is easily solvable by setting up a headline on your EMS's homepage, and then a secure area for signing up. If you had done that, and posted the link to it here, then people would not be so quick to yell "SCAM." Remember, a lot of the people that use Voip are geeks by nature, and are quick to spot online scams. I would NEVER send anything personal to an email address, just onb the word of a forum posting, and I'm sure others feel that way. Don't get me wrong, I think it's important to test VoIP's 911 capability, but you have to do it the right way.

Davy, Why be snotty? Placing public service ads is expensive and requires all sorts of production time.

If some EMT who takes care of technical services posts something to enlist help here, why did you attack him? Actually, the people on this Forum are more likely to be interested in testing things and helping in that way.